Editor's notes: The following comes from Bill Groak. February
12, 2005.

Drag racing legends Leon Fitzgerald, Dave Wallace and Dale
Armstrong were among those on hand Friday night as the

Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of
Southern California, announced the Honorees

for the 14th Annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. Armstrong was named
Grand Marshal for the event, Sept. 30-Oct. 2

in Bakersfield. Fitzgerald, Wallace, Dick Landy, Shirley Shahan, Bill
Simpson and Dave Uyehara will be those honored at the

event. Tie votes by the selection panel meant that six persons will be
honored rather than the normal five.
The Night of Champions brings together racing fans with some of the
drivers competing at the nearby Pomona Raceway in

the CarQuest Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals (Feb. 10-13) and past
champions of the event. It’s just one more example of

the Museum’s "living history" project, said Sam Jackson, executive
director of the Parks Museum, which is presented by the

Automobile Club of Southern California. Grand Marshal Dale Armstrong
won twelve NHRA National events with a series of

alcohol-burning dragsters, altereds and funny cars during the 1970s. But
the 1975 Winston Pro Comp champ and former Funny

Car National Record Holder is perhaps best known for his mechanical
prowess. As crew chief for Kenny Bernstein, he tuned

the Budweiser King to four NHRA Funny Car Championships in the 1980s as
well as Kenny’s first 300-mph pass in 1992 at

Gainesville. His driving career dates back to the early 1960s in his
native Canada and he was named Number Ten on NHRA’s

all-time Top 50 Drivers list during NHRA’s 50th Anniversary season in
2000.
Best known as the driver of the famous Pure Heavan Fuel Altered,
one of the first racers to successfully use the big block

Chevrolet, Leon Fitzgerald was part of the National Fuel Altered Tour in
the late 1960's and early 70's that included Leroy

Chadderton in the Magnificent 7, the Marcellus and Borsch Winged
Express, Henry Harrison in Nolan and Pritchard’s Beaver

Hunter and Don Green’s Rat Trap and introduced the exciting Fuel
Altereds to fans all across the country. Although he started

his drag racing career in Fords, from the early ‘60's through the
mid-‘70's, Dick Landy’s name was synonymous with Mopar.

He was a pioneer in the days of altered wheelbase factory experimentals
that led directly to the current Funny Cars. When

Landy reached 196 mph on fuel, Chrysler Product Planning decided they’d
seen enough and set up a series of Performance

Clinics at showrooms throughout the country. Landy was selected as the
Dodge representative. In 1967 alone, Landy conducted

more than 70 clinics for 50,000 people in 29 states. Landy made a great
many friends for Mopar and raced as many as seven

different cars in a single season. In the early ‘70's, he helped pioneer
the Pro Stock category.
When Shirley Shahan won Stock Eliminator at the ’66 Winternationals,
she became the first woman to win an Eliminator

title at an NHRA National event. This pioneering effort made it possible
for her to become one of the sport’s first female

professional racers. She began her career racing a ’58 Chevy and won the
Super Stock class at the first Bakersfield March

Meet in 1959. In 1965, with some backing from Chrysler, she and
then-husband H. L. Shahan bought a Plymouth Super

Stocker. A Plymouth public relations man came up with the Drag-On-Lady
title that stuck throughout her career. She toured

the country for four years, running both Super Stock and injected match
races. In 1969 she was offered a factory AMC Super

Stock and eventually a Pro Stock when the class was created.
Bill Simpson began his drag racing career with an injected fuel
dragster and began manufacturing drag chutes in his garage

in Redondo Beach as a second job to supplement his job at the movie
studios. The demand for his products became so great

that he expanded his business to include fire suits, seat belts and
other safety equipment. By the 1970s he was able to live a

lifelong dream racing Indy cars. It was at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway that he performed his famous publicity stunt by

setting himself on fire while wearing one of his own suits. He
eventually became the largest manufacturer of safety equipment in

the industry before selling his company and forming a new one called
Impact Racing. Over the last four decades, Simpson’s

products have literally saved hundreds of racers in all forms of the
sport from serious injury or worse.
Dave Uyehara has been a drag racer in Northern California for over
forty years. Teamed with Frank Martinez, he began his

career in a Jr. Fuel dragster in the mid-‘60's. Since then he has driven
and built countless dragster and funny car chassis and in

the late ‘80's he was one of the most prominent chassis builders in the
sport with a long list of customers including Eddie Hill.

Today, his Nostalgia Top Fuel cars are the standard of the sport.

In the 1950s, Dave Wallace Sr. took a second job at San Fernando
Drag Strip to help raise his growing family and

supplement his income as a postal worker. His love of the sport led to
his becoming a track reporter for Drag News as well

as honing his photography skills. A photo he took in the early ‘60s
survived to win an award in the Leslie Lovett Memorial

Photo Contest at the 2002 California Hot Rod Reunion. His son, Dave Jr.,
has continued the tradition started by his father,

reporting on drag racing himself for nearly four decades.
The 14th annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion, presented by the
Automobile Club of Southern California, annually

attracts thousands of hot rod enthusiasts to Kern County to honor the
pioneers of the sport. The honorees speak at a Friday

night reception and receive the "Wally Award" at ceremonies on historic
Famoso Raceway. Named for the founder of the

National Hot Rod Association, the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum
presented by the Automobile Club of Southern

California houses the very roots of hot rodding. Scores of famous
vehicles spanning American motorsports history are on